Blake Griffin, Clippers put a beatdown on Warriors in Game 2

Andy Holzman / Staff Photographer
The Clippers' Chris Paul, left, scrambles for a loose ball with Golden State's Steve Blake during Monday's playoff at Staples Center. The Clippers routed the Warriors 138-98 and tied their series at one game apiece.

By Robert Morales

robert.morales@langnews.com @RMoralesPT on Twitter

LOS ANGELES >> That’s more like it.

Two days after Blake Griffin played fewer than 20 minutes because of foul trouble and two days after the Clippers fell apart down the stretch, they righted their ship in a big way Monday by wiping the Staples Center floor with the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series.

Thanks in large part to a ferocious first half in which they outscored Golden State by 26 points, the Clippers rolled to a 138-98 victory before a sellout crowd of 19,570 at Staples Center.

Game 3 is Thursday at Golden State.

Griffin? All he did was score a career playoff-high 35 points on 13-of-17 shooting. He also had six rebounds and made 9 of 10 shots from the free-throw line, and he didn’t even play in the fourth quarter because of the lopsided nature of the game.

It was the largest margin of victory in a playoff game in franchise history, as well as the largest point total. The Clippers shot 56.6 percent (47 of 83) from the field and 48 percent (12 of 25) from 3-point range.

Other than that, they didn’t do a thing.

This one had a bit of everything. Leading 61-37 late in the first half, Chris Paul threw up a lob pass to DeAndre Jordan, who powered down a monster reverse slam that had the Clippers faithful jumping out of their seats.

A few minutes earlier, the Warriors’ Jermaine O’Neal started jaw-jacking at Clippers coach Doc Rivers after O’Neal was called for a foul. Rivers gave it right back to the big fella and both were charged with technical fouls.

The Clippers took care of the ball. They had 13 turnovers to a whopping 26 for Golden State. The Clippers also made 32 of 35 from the free-throw line for 91.4 percent.

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What a difference two days made.

Rivers was asked afterward if, in his wildest dreams, he could have imagined a 40-point victory.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said, drawing laughter from a packed post-game news conference. “It was nice, you know, it was a good win for us. Obviously, they came in here and did what they had to do, winning the other night.

“But I liked how we approached the game and how we came out and played the right way tonight on both ends of the floor.”

The story was Griffin, who had just 16 points and three rebounds on Saturday, both totals well below his season averages.

“He was terrific,” Rivers said. “I thought everyone was. But I just thought Blake took it when he had it, moved it when he didn’t. I thought our spacing was great and Blake just stayed on the attack. And that’s what we wanted him to do.”

Said Griffin: “Every NBA player deals with confidence issues at times. Before every game to hear CP, Jamal (Crawford), DJ (Jordan) and Matt (Barnes) and DC (Collison) down the line and coaching staff say, ‘Go attack, score and do what you do,’ that’s a confidence builder. Even when I miss shots, they still say that.”

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 24 points. But many of his points came when his team was down by more than 25 points. He had just four points at halftime — when his team trailed 67-41 — on 1-of-6 shooting from the field. He finished 9 of 17. Klay Thompson, the other half of Golden State’s two-headed 3-point monster, was in early trouble and finished with seven points in just 21 minutes of play. David Lee scored 11 points.

Rivers also applauded the play of his reserves.

“I thought our bench was just fantastic,” he said.

With Thompson in early foul trouble, the Warriors really need a lot from Curry. But they received virtually nothing from him in the first half, and what he did in the second didn’t matter because the game was out of reach.

“They trapped him in pick-and-roll situations, overhelped and forced the ball out of his hands,” Golden State coach Mark Jackson said. “They were the aggressors. We didn’t match the intensity early on.”